Fireballs have been reported above Cuba and California in the same week that a meteor streaked across the skies over Russia.

In Cuba on Tuesday, residents reported seeing a bright light in the sky and a loud explosion that shook windows and walls, although there were no reports of any injuries or damage.

One resident of the city of Rodas, near Cienfuegos, described the light as "bigger than the sun". He said: "On Tuesday we left home to fish around five in the afternoon, and around 8:00 we saw a light in the heavens and then a big ball of fire, bigger than the sun."

Another resident said described how her home was "completely shaken" by the explosion. She added: "I had never heard such a strange thing."

There were also numerous unconfirmed reports of a bright streak of light over the San Francisco Bay area on Friday night.

Scientists at the Chabot Space and Science Center, in Oakland, said it had received calls describing what appeared to be a fireball flying west, but it was not clear what the object was.

Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer, said the centre's telescopes did not pick up the object.

The reports came hours after a meteor exploded over Russia and injured more than 1,000 people and an asteroid passed relatively close to Earth.

The 55 foot wide rock, said by Nasa to have a mass of 10,000 tonnes, lit up the sky above the Urals region on Friday morning, causing shockwaves that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes in an event unprecedented in modern times.

Nasa estimated that the energy released as the meteor's disintigrated in the atmosphere was 500 kilotons, around 30 times the size of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.